


Starting the Rebellion

by ceridwen_2020



Series: Early ideas for a re-imagining of the Rise of Skywalker [1]
Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Being Chased, Gen, Use of guns / blasters, threat of death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-23
Updated: 2020-11-23
Packaged: 2021-03-09 21:40:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,991
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27682997
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ceridwen_2020/pseuds/ceridwen_2020
Summary: Finn and Poe travel to Mos Espa on Tatooine to find out if rumours of deserting stormtroopers are true. Whilst they are there, they get into hot water!This was an early idea I had for how the stormtrooper rebellion might work - as more First Order troops are taken off the ships and used planet-side, their brainwashing would start to break down, particularly when they come into contact with non-First Order civilians.
Relationships: Poe Dameron & Finn
Series: Early ideas for a re-imagining of the Rise of Skywalker [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2024378
Kudos: 1





	Starting the Rebellion

The port city of Mos Espa was baking in the midday sun, the white buildings the only thing designed to keep cool in the extreme temperatures. Poe wondered why, then, were he and Finn outside. ‘How many can you see?’  
Crouched in the dirt, Finn was looking through electrobinoculars towards a target hundred several feet away, ‘About twenty… nah, more like twenty-two.’  
‘That’s a very precise guess,’ said Poe admirably, swatting at an insect that was trying to bite into his neck. ‘What are these blasted things?’  
‘No idea,’ Finn reached over and picked the now squashed insect off Poe’s neck. He looked at it for a moment - it had six legs, four scrappy-looking wings and a long proboscis - before flicking it away.  
‘So, what’s the plan?’  
They were watching one of the First Order security stations that had hastily been set up in Mos Espa after the recent occupation of Tatooine. It was a roughly-built structure, little more than four plasteel walls and a shoddy looking roof. It would not take much to bring it down. Yet they were not there to blow up the building, tempting as it was.  
Their objective was to try and incite the stormtroopers to rebel against the First Order, or at least reconsider their options. Like many of the storm troopers they had encountered on newly occupied planets, as soon as they were cut off from their supply ships they often became ill-disciplined and lazy, denied the regular reprogramming which kept them loyal and alert. Exposure to other cultures and ways of living had also started to erode their loyalty to the Order, and the Resistance were ready to take advantage of it. As Finn knew himself, there was no real incentive to be loyal to the First Order, it was a habit, something ingrained through repeated exposure rather than a real belief in something.  
‘Let’s do what we suggested,’ said Finn, looking over at the group of stormtroopers milling about in front of the security station. They were chatting and goofing about, having little to do. ‘We go and chat to them, let them know that there are other options.’  
‘Alright, but you take the lead,’ said Poe, picking himself up from the ground and dusting himself off. He hated the sand, it got everywhere - in his clothes, in his hair and even in his ration packs. It was a mystery how it happened.  
The two men approached the squadron warily, holding up their hands as if about to surrender. The stormtroopers were concerned at first but as soon as they saw that neither Poe or Finn had weapons, they began to relax.  
‘How can we help you, guys?’ Apart from the stormtrooper’s helmet, he could have been chatting to Finn in one of the planet’s cantinas.  
Finn decided to brazen it out. ‘Have you ever thought that you’re playing for the wrong team?’  
‘What do you mean?’  
Finn did not sense any hostility, the opposite in fact. ‘The First Order don’t respect you,’ he said, ‘you’re just a statistic to them, cannon fodder to be sent out into battle or into lawless systems like these whilst the officers cower on their ships. They make the decisions about your life, not you.’  
The stormtrooper grasped his blaster a little more tightly, ‘It had crossed my mind.’  
The other troopers came closer, intrigued by what Finn had to say.  
‘They took you from your family,’ went on Finn, whilst Poe nodded supportively, ‘they took you from everything that you knew and destroyed it, wiping your memory so that you would never know.’  
‘How do you know this?’ One of the stormtroopers was incredulous.  
‘Because I was one of you. FN-2187. I trained on the Invincible and was sent out into the field on Jakku. I was told by Phasma to massacre innocent villagers.’ He paused, remembering the terror of that night. ‘I couldn’t do it.’  
‘You broke your programming?’ asked one of the troopers, ‘how?’  
‘I don’t know, it just happened.’ Finn had to admit it did seem unlikely.  
‘How did you get out?’ asked one of the taller stormtroopers, he had been listening carefully, greatly affected by Finn’s words.  
‘I helped him to escape,’ said Poe, ‘we took a ship from right under their noses.’  
‘I wish I’d seen that,’ chuckled one of the stormtroopers. ‘You know what,’ he went on, addressing Finn and Poe, ‘we owe those goons nothing. We’ve been stuck on this miserable planet now for four months. Four months! Not one of High Command have come to thank us for our dedication or relieve us of our duty. We’ve been forgotten about.’  
‘Whilst Kylo Ren flies around the galaxy getting rich on our efforts,’ muttered another.  
Finn and Poe looked at each other with relief - clearly there was much anger within the rank and file troopers. It was exactly what they needed.  
‘We want to help you,’ said Finn, ‘there are lots of possibilities out there, outside of the First Order.’  
‘Who are you with?’  
‘The Resistance,’ said Finn, handing one of the troopers a small transmission signal, ‘under General Organa.’  
‘She’s the one who led the rebellion against the Empire?’ asked another of the troopers.  
‘That’s right. But we need to build up our support - the First Order nearly decimated us and we’re still trying to catch up.’  
‘What can we do to help?’ asked one of the troopers, whilst his companions concurred.  
‘Get the word out,’ said Poe simply, ‘We’re gonna need as many of you with us as possible. Let everyone know what we’ve told you, and when the time is right, we’ll let you know when the revolution starts.’  
The stormtrooper nodded and tucked the transmission signal away beneath his armour. ‘Okay but we want you to do something for us in return.’  
Finn looked at Poe with concern, ‘What’s that?’  
‘Find out who our families are.’  
‘We’ll do all we can,’ he promised. Finding out where he had come from was something that he had always wanted, and if he could help other stormtroopers then he would.  
‘Watch out,’ said one of the Stormtroopers urgently, ‘they’ve clocked you.’  
Another squadron, fresh off one of the command ships, was heading their way, blasters at the ready. ‘Stop those fugitives!’

Cursing, Poe grabbed Finn’s arm and they ran off towards the settlement of Mom Espa where they had left Chewbacca with the Falcon. A couple of the stormtroopers that they had been talking to pretended to shoot at them, but the main bulk of the squadron continued to chase after them.  
‘That was easier than I thought,’ shouted Finn as he raced alongside Poe, dodging behind buildings, trying to throw off their pursuers.  
‘It was,’ said Poe with a grin, ‘seems Kylo Ren is doing our job for us!’  
They careened off down a narrow alleyway, leaping over animals and knocking past citizens in a bid to escape from the stormtroopers but several laser blasts behind them told them that it had been unsuccessful. Pulling out his comlink, Poe sent a hurried message to Chewbacca.  
‘Get the Falcon fired up,’ he yelled, simultaneously leaping over a group of children playing in the dirt, ‘we’re coming in hot!’  
In the Falcon, Chewbacca grumbled to himself as he put down the tools he was using to repair a loose bit of wiring, and lumbered over to the cockpit. It was just like the old days. He had thought, after Han’s death, that his life might slow down a little. Han had always lived at a frenetic pace, unable to relax, partly because he had always angered someone. But it seemed that his new friends were exactly the same.  
Another minute and he could hear the sounds of Finn and Poe running up the gangplank: ‘Time to go, Chewie!’  
Chewbacca had already started the sequence for take-off when Poe plopped himself down into the pilot’s seat. ‘Let’s get this baby into the air.’  
Finn ran into the cockpit and took his seat behind Poe. ‘What the-‘  
They all looked out of the window. Up in the sky, visible above the lip of the hangar they were about to clear, was a large squadron of TIE fighters heading towards them.  
‘Blast it!’ said Poe, his mind going over a hundred different scenarios at once, ‘can we lose them, Chewie?’  
Chewbacca mewed softly, pushing several buttons at once. Understanding what he was doing, Poe pushed several levers together and the Falcon executed a dizzying spin, cleared the hangar and sped off in the opposite direction. Immediately the rear deflector shields were peppered with laser fire as the TIEs chased after them.  
‘This is gonna be rough,’ said Poe, checking the co-ordinates. ‘It’s gonna be a few minutes before we can go into hyperspace.’  
‘I’ll get the gun,’ said Finn, almost falling out of his seat as the ship spun wildly to dodge another attack. Drunkenly, he staggered off to the gun deck.

Above Tatooine, the inhabitants of the Star Destroyer, Courageous, were watching the planet-side events with interest. Captain Trudeau looked up as one of her aides brought over the details, ‘Ma’am, the ship checks out with the details of a YT-1300 Corellian light freighter that is associated with the Resistance.’  
‘Then what is it doing in our territory?’ demanded the Captain, ‘blast it to smithereens!’

‘Now we’ve got a Star Destroyer on our tail,’ moaned Poe, as the huge ship started to swing round, its guns warming up.  
‘Why aren’t we in hyperspace yet?’ demanded Finn over the speaker, he was trying his best against the TIE fighters but there were too many of them and they were swarming around the Falcon like sinister insects.  
‘The blasted ship is too close,’ shouted Poe, thinking that they would have to do something drastic. ‘How’s it looking, Chewie?’  
Chewbacca mentioned that the rear deflector shields were almost gone, the front shields were hanging on by a thread, and the turret lasers had stopped working.  
‘Right,’ Poe weighed things up, they did need to take drastic action. ‘We’re gonna have to jump without the co-ordinates set…’  
‘Is that even possible?’ squeaked Finn, finally annihilating another TIE.  
‘Yep, but only if we’re desperate - which we are.’ Poe looked across at Chewie, ‘Ready?’  
Chewbacca growled reluctantly.  
‘Okay, here we go,’ Poe grabbed hold of the levers for hyperspace and closed his eyes.  
When he opened them, the Falcon was still intact but was heading towards a colossal building. ‘Blast!’ Skilfully Poe and Chewie avoided disaster only for Finn to yell, ‘They’ve followed us?’  
‘What?’ Poe looked wildly at the scopes - Finn was right, the TIEs were still following them. ‘How the hell did that happen?’  
As he helped Poe fly the Falcon through the dense city they found themselves in, Chewbacca casually mentioned something about the TIEs being sucked into their slipstream as they jumped through hyperspace.  
‘Is that a thing?’ Poe looked dubious.  
Chewbacca said that it must be a ‘thing’ otherwise how else would the TIEs be following them?  
‘A little help back here!’ yelled Finn, he was struggling to contain the fighters, another direct hit and they would be done for.  
‘Alright, here we go again!’ Poe pulled the levers and the Falcon skipped into another system, this time a strange green planet with giant space worms - Poe knew he was pushing his luck, especially when one of the space worms opened its mouth wide as if to swallow the Falcon.  
‘Chewie!’ Poe yelled and together they just managed to manoeuvre the ship out of the way of the worm. The remaining TIEs were not so lucky and were quickly swallowed up.  
‘Thanks space worm!’ whooped Poe, feeling light-headed. It had been so close.  
‘Can we go home now?’ Finn appeared at the door of the cockpit, looking exhausted.  
‘We can,’ said Poe. As soon as the co-ordinates were set, he pulled on the levers and the familiar streaks of hyperspace appeared.


End file.
